Patti Payne: Bill Sperling retires

Bill Sperling has retired. Finally. It took him 41 years to get there, but he has now accomplished the deed. With help.

Sperling worked for U.S. Bank for 25 years, and when he retired, he was vice president and manager of the private banking team. He worked for and with Phyllis Campbell, who was CEO and president of the bank in those years.

“At 55, I wanted to parasail from Seattle to my home in Bainbridge and drop my briefcase in Elliott Bay. But Phyllis suggested I was too young to retire at that time, and thought I should interview with Anne Farrell over at The Seattle Foundation (Farrell was president and CEO). I tend to listen to what Phyllis has to say and do what she says to do,” he told me.

“After the interview, Anne asked me, ‘Can you give me five years?’ And I thought about it and agreed. That was 16 years ago!” This time, he retired as the vice president of Foundation Affairs. And he had forgotten all about his dream to parasail home on his retirement day.

But Campbell didn’t forget. She and her executive assistant, Margaret Taylor, worked behind the scenes, with Sperling’s wife, Gerry, and daughter Wendy Phillips, to engineer an Aug. 30 retirement day Sperling would remember:

An appointment was made in July for Campbell and Sperling to have lunch together on Aug. 30, supposedly the only time Campbell had open on her busy schedule. It was to be at Anthony’s HomePort on Elliott Bay.

On the appointed day, Sperling arrived at Anthony’s early, and waited. Soon his wife, Gerry, appeared, to his confusion. “She showed up, grinning ear to ear, with a bag and some clothes — a pink brocade with black-velvet trim dinner jacket I had for years that I’d wear to 1950s parties and such. And a red cummerbund and bow tie.”

Long story short, Campbell, Taylor, Wendy Phillips and husband, Bret Phillips, Kristi Mathisen and Gerry all gathered to watch Sperling ceremoniously walk the dock to the parasail boat, carrying a briefcase marked with huge letters “Gone Fishin’.” And then, after strapping securely into the harness, and leaning back into the sitting position over the water, it was up, up and away ... a speck in the sky.

“I had 25 unforgettable minutes in the air,” says Sperling, “on an incredible bluebird-blue day, with the best view of downtown Seattle. What a great gift. The only thing that has changed is the environmental laws, and so I couldn’t drop my briefcase into the water.”

Lunch followed an hour after Sperling thought it was scheduled, and a full retirement party on Oct. 4 with a wide swath of people giving tribute to Sperling.

“Retirement is going to be fine. I’m going to be 72. I’ve had four close friends die. And I feel it’s time spend time with my best friend, Gerry.”

Sperling will maintain his longtime involvement with Rotary and is on the Harris Bank Advisory Board and Seattle Rotary Service Foundation.